Yara Zgheib
Yara Zgheib is the author of No Land to Light On and the critically acclaimed The Girls at 17 Swann Street, which was a People Pick for Best New Books and a BookMovement Group Read. She is a Fulbright scholar with a master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown University and a PhD in international affairs in diplomacy from Centre d’Études Diplomatiques et Stratégiques in Paris. Learn more at YaraZgheib.com.
All Books By Yara Zgheib
No Land to Light On
- By: Yara Zgheib
- Narrator: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 6 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.01(2544 ratings)
From the author of The Girls at 17 Swann Street comes a “masterful story of tragedy and redemption” (Hala Alyan, author of Salt Houses) “written in soul-searing prose” (BookPage, starred review) about a young Syrian couple in the throes of new love on the cusp of their bright future when a travel ban rips them apart on the eve of their son’s premature birth.
Sama and Hadi are a young Syrian couple in love, dreaming of their future in the country that brought them together. Sama came to Boston years before on a prestigious Harvard scholarship; Hadi landed there as a sponsored refugee from a bloody civil war. Now, they are giddily awaiting the birth of their son, a boy whose native language will be freedom and belonging.
When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi’s father dies suddenly, and Hadi decides to fly back to Jordan for the funeral. He leaves America, promising his wife he’ll be gone only for a few days. On the date of his return, Sama waits for him at the arrivals gate, but he doesn’t appear. As the minutes and then hours pass, she becomes increasingly alarmed, unaware that Hadi has been stopped by US Customs and Border Protection, detained for questioning, and deported.
Achingly intimate yet poignantly universal, No Land to Light On is “a tense, moving novel about the meaning of home, the risks of exile, the power of nations, and the power of love” (Kirkus Reviews).
The Girls at 17 Swann Street
- By: Yara Zgheib
- Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 7 hours 49 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: February 05, 2019
- Language: English
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3.98(8863 ratings)
“[Narrator Saskia Maarleveld’s] tour de force reading perfectly encapsulates Anna’s anxieties, shame, and overwhelming guilt at failing to achieve perfection” — Booklist, starred review
**A People Pick for Best New Books**
Yara Zgheib’s poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting portrait of a young woman’s struggle with anorexia on an intimate journey to reclaim her life.
The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight, perhaps she would make the soloists’ list. Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough. Perhaps if she just ran for one more mile, lost just one more pound.
Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears – imperfection, failure, loneliness – she spirals down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day.
Every bite causes anxiety. Every flavor induces guilt. And every step Anna takes toward recovery will require strength, endurance, and the support of the girls at 17 Swann Street.
Praise for The Girls at 17 Swann Street:
“A singular celebration of the lifesaving power of community and small gestures.” — New York Times Book Review
“Powerful and poetic…Zgheib’s lyrical, dreamlike style…will resonate with fans of Wally Lamb’s and Anne Tyler’s novels and Augusten Burrough’s memoirs.” — Booklist
“Heartbreaking and beautiful…a brave book, stark in its realism, yet tempered by its lyrical prose.” — Diane Chamberlain, New York Times bestselling author of The Dream Daughter
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